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Chris Evans Talks 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - the sequel to last year's Captain America: The First Avenger - will be based, at least in part, on Ed Brubaker’s comic book story arc of the same name where Captain America’s long-dead sidekick, Bucky Barnes, was (retroactively) resurrected as a villain.

Recently, while promoting The Iceman, Chris Evans talked a little bit about The Winter Soldier. He also had kind words to say about his co-stars Sebastian Stan - who will play the (sub) titular character in the sequel - and Anthony Mackie - who will play the winged superhero, The Falcon.

On using "The Winter Soldier" as a basis for the upcoming film - courtesy of MTV - Evans said:

"There were always hints [that ‘Winter Soldier’ would be the sequel]. The best thing about [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige is he's a fan. He's not just a businessman, he's a rabid comic book fan. Even during the first ‘Captain America,’ well before ‘The Avengers,’ there were whispers of [Winter Soldier] being the sequel. So I'm excited to tackle that."

He also praised the man who will be playing Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan of Gossip Girl fame:

"I love Sebastian. He's such a great guy."

One of the biggest missteps of Captain America: The First Avenger, in this writer's opinion, was the glossing over of Bucky Barnes as a peripheral character. Sure, Bucky was depicted as Cap’s friend from before the war, but once the two reunited, he was basically resigned to being just another member of The Howling Commandos.

In the comic books, Ed Brubaker’s “Winter Soldier” storyline had the benefit of a long history where Bucky Barnes was the Marvel equivalent of Robin the Boy Wonder. When Bucky reappeared decades later - after his supposed death - as a Soviet cyborg assassin by the name of Winter Soldier, it was a little shocking, to say the least. How could that sweet teenage sidekick have turned into an evil killing machine?

But in the movie, we had all of thirty or so minutes of screen time to get attached to Bucky’s character before he "died" by sort of falling off a train. It probably didn’t help that his death scene felt more like a setup for future films than a natural progression of events - but maybe that was just me.

Don't get me wrong, The First Avenger was not a bad film by any means. In fact, for my money, it’s one of the better Marvel films. It did many things right, perhaps most of all Captain America - and Steve Rogers - himself.

Still, it does make me wonder if an adaptation of the "Winter Soldier" storyline will be as inherently effective as it could have been had they spent more time developing Bucky in the first film. Does the general film-going audience know that Cap's pal was such an important character - arguably the most important supporting character in Captain America’s circle? Or was he just some guy who fell off a train to give Cap the motivation he needed to save the day?

Chris Evans as Captain America in 'The Avengers'

Of course, this all has little bearing on the final product of the forthcoming sequel, which could very well prove to be an excellent take on the "Winter Soldier" storyline regardless of the Bucky's role in the first Captain America film. We only have to wait about two years to know for certain.

Lastly, Chris Evans briefly talked about Anthony Mackie, who will be playing Sam Wilson, A.K.A. The Falcon (a superhero who uses artificial wings to fly) in The Winter Soldier:

"He's so great, I've known Mackie for a few years now. I'm really happy we got him. We got lucky."

It's slim, but it's all we've got for now.

What say you, Screen Ranters? Are you looking forward to Marvel’s cinematic adaptation of one of the most popular Captain America comic book storylines in years? Let us know in the comments.